Spore Hemmo
by Jon Berkley
Summary: A description of one of the many races in the Spore Galaxy. This time an empire with a rare Philosophy is described, namely the Hemmo who follow the way of the Knight.


**Spore Hemmo**

The Hemmo-Empire is one of the last empires in the Spore Galaxy that still follows the philosophy, the traditions and the mores of the Knight.

They have momentarily disguised themselves as a Warrior-Empire, because of the large danger of being a Knight-Empire.

This danger comes in the form of the Grox and many other Empires who don't like Knights, like the Warriors Of Spode, a treaty between various Zealot- and Warrior-Empires. This treaty is based upon the fact that all empires who have signed it (38, in total, so far) unite against all who oppose their ways. Including these, are Knight-Empires. Together with the Grox, the Warriors of Spode, mostly referred to as the WOS, have nearly diminished the number of Knight-Empires in the Spore Galaxy.

Now, only 7 Knight-Empires still exist, of which one is suffering from heavy attacks of the WOS.

These last remaining Knights disguise themselves as other kinds of empires, mostly as Warriors (which the Knight philosophy is quite similar to.) or Ecologists (The reason for that is as of yet, unknown).

Of course, not all empires are against Knights, some even help protect them.

What they are mostly doing now, is monitoring species developing sapience and, through manipulating brain-waves, trying to create new Knight-Empires.

One had developed the right way, but tore itself apart with war and was now not much more than some ruins of a city and a few dying citizens, hiding among them.

But the Knights continue.

The Hemmo themselves came a long way from what they are now. They are of an amphibious nature and mostly resemble toads. They are omnivorous, but have mostly retorted to a diet full of vegetables and including little meat and fish. They developed into predators before gaining sapience and becoming a more peaceful tribe, but they soon came back to violence and military in their civilizations. After defeating the other nations, The Great Council, which resemble the most important elements of life, according to the Hemmo themselves. These include: The Military, The Admiralty, The Air Force Command, The Ministry of Agriculture, The Academy Of Science and Technology and The Royal Order of the Temple Knights (by far, the most important with the most influence). The different ministries and other organizations are represented by their various leader or leaders. Together they vote on various subjects, except for declarations of war and alliances, which are determined solely by the Temple Knights. So far, no allies have been made and the enemies include: The Grox, All Empires who singed and will sign the WOS-Treaty, the local Bully (the Joburt-Empire), and apple pie, which for some reason, all of the Hemmo-Empire have developed a phobia for.

Their home planet, Stilloss, is a planet of green grasslands and of thick forests. The sea-level is pretty low, leaving all coasts to have large cliffs and few actual sand beaches. Those small strips of sand that was on the same level as the sea are rare and valuable.

Most ships have been disassembled since the invention of aerial travel and airplanes and helicopters have taken over the role of inter-continental transport. The temperatures vary between 15 to 25 degrees Celsius during summer, and between -6 to 7 degrees Celsius during winter.

The planet is a very large one and thinly populated, even with 18 billion Hemmo on it.

The majority of the Hemmo population is either soldier or farmer and, rarely, tailor or butcher and the like. There are few villages and cities and most of the crop is used to feed the Hemmo Army.

Their culture seems to be some sort of Medieval Feudalism on the lower levels, at least.

Stilloss is divided in seven continents, each divided in 12 provinces. The provinces are ruled by a Count and under him, six Lords serve to divide the land. Most land is rented by farmers who pay the rent with their crops and livestock and who serve during wartime.

Only few cities exist and the Capital of Stilloss is Royal Keep, which houses the military leaders and the Temple Knights.

Royal Keep is a marvel of Architecture and would have attracted a lot of tourist, if it wasn't for the Hemmo's isolationism.

The Hemmo have almost completely isolated themselves from the other empires around them. Their location is in the second left arm of The Galaxy and is situated close to the end of that arm.

Their main source of income is Spice export and the stealing of money and resources with brutal force, from various other empires.

They possess 6 Star Systems so far and produce most varieties of Spice, excluding Yellow Spice, which is not used by the Hemmo.

They prefer to terraform their colonies to T-3 and use most land for food production and spice mines. They harvest most spice by hand and rarely use machines. The refining is done by machines and sold by an envoy, who is mostly a local noble or knight.

The Hemmo rarely buy spice and only buy certain tools and hire mercenaries from spaceports sometimes to fetch a plant or animal for them, sometimes.

The only other empire which the Hemmo have extended contact with, is a Scientist-Empire, under the name of Andamakken [En-De-Mek-ken].

The Andamakken help the Hemmo with their attempts of creating a new Knight Empire, which is the Hemmo's primary goal, to create a new alliance of Knight Empires to strike back at the WOS and the Grox and, of course, those pesky apple pies.

The Hemmo fleet does not excel in either number, technology or skill, but the Hemmo soldiers are among the best soldiers in the Spore Galaxy. The Hemmo knights and soldiers are armed with some sort of holograph-technology swords, spears and other hand weapons. The military possesses blasters, but those are mostly reserved for sharpshooters and officers. The Hemmo posses strong artillery devices. Their cannons are known to penetrate almost all material in the Galaxy.

Because of their good soldiers, the Hemmo prefer to fight on T-2 and T-3 and sometimes on T-1 planets. T-0 planets are almost never attacked by the Hemmo.

Their battles start with shelling the city that they attack, then when the enemy defences are weakened, their infantry finishes the job and this continues, until the whole planet is conquered.

The Hemmo rarely capture other systems, though.

For unknown reasons the Hemmo worship the colour blue and it is seen as the god in their religion.

A law was imposed by the King during Tribal era, which forbade to destroy anything blue on the penalty of death, this law still exists, but is, luckily for the Hemmo, unknown to the other empires.

Technology is, except for space ships, spice refineries and the holograph-weapons, highly distrusted by the average Hemmo. Most Hemmo use old traditional farming tools and refuse to use the more effective and safe machines.

In short, most of Stilloss is old-fashioned, conservative and simply primitive.

Animals and lower, sapient lifeforms are treated well by the Hemmo and, as earlier described, attempted to mold into new Knights.

Let's hope the Knights succeed in making more types of Knights, because we don't want to see the destruction of a whole philosophy.

And let's hope that the Hemmo can keep out of the hands of the hateful Grox and WOS.

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**Please review! All feedback is appreciated! Please try not to curse... too much.**


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